October 22, 2005

Not Running from Wilma

We are all of course watching this hurricane as it creeps its way over to the West Coast of Florida. Kathy of On the Third Hand is in that area. She evac’s tomorrow.

Last I read, it might come in as a Cat 2, but is moving so quickly that the storm surge will be like that of a Cat 3. That’s devastation to their beaches… billions of dollars of damage is expected.

It might miss them all together and hit The Keys. Nobody knows for sure. I’m saying my money is on the fact that the grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadettewill once again protect the citizens of Key West.

Maybe we need our own grotto in West Palm Beach. Or maybe one big MONSTER GROTTO for the entire state of Florida. I’m all for that.

Anyway, people in my neighborhood are going nuts. Shutters and plywood are going up. In the back of my mind, I keep hearing Fred Sanford, “Ohhh...this is the big one. You hear that ‘lizabeth? I'm comin' to join you honey!" Sorry… but I just don’t think we’re going to get hammered here. I think they’re overreacting.

And… maybe overreaction is good. I think many of these folks just got hurricane shutters and want to see how long the process takes to cover their openings.

The thing is… I KNOW how long it takes to haul all ours out and put them up. I’m not doing that unless it’s a 2 or more. I’m not. Now tomorrow morning if I wake up, and Wilma is coming in strong, and she’s gonna nail the West coast as a 3, yeah, my Better Half and I will be hauling down shutters and putting them up. Otherwise? Nope.

My updated map is below. I had a couple folks in the wrong place and added a couple more. Folks… there are a lot of bloggers in Florida. If you are a Florida blogger and want to be added, just let me know your location. It’s no sweat. But I decided I’m not just going to add here and there or… we definitely won’t be able to see Tampa. Holy crap, have they got the Blogging Religion there. I almost want to say, “If you live in Tampa and you DON’T blog, let me know!” heh.

Also, if YOU personally know of a Florida blogger that you read and like, I’ll add them. They don’t have to e-mail me.

I may go so far as to make this map more ‘interactive’ in the sense that you can click on the name and get the blog (Dave at The Glittering Eye has been giving me tips on how to do it), but it won’t be too soon. That would take time and I’m still Treasurer of the School, working, Den Mother to a Pack of Bears, working with Katrina’s Kidz, and working as a State Chairman for a National philanthropy. Oh and I have three kids, a husband and a hamster. So… I have to make it fit in. I think it will become a long term project. I really do.

Hi I live in Sarasota,Florida and no rain yet over here. Just a very cloudy sky.
Funny thing is my husband and I moved here from Malibu,Ca. You know the land of fires, mudslides and earthquakes. This is our second year now in Florida so I am learning fast what Hunker down means.

I think someone should pitch this as a story to the newscasters. "Florida Residents Blog About Hurricanes" It will give the media something else to talk about than the cone of error, steering currents, wind sheer, computer models, etc.

Came via Sticks of Fire. I'm in Sarasota, I did not evac. I'm about 50 miles north of the target zone of Naples.
I'm not shuttered up but have supplies.
We're suppoed to feel gusts of up to 75-80 mph starting sometime around 2-3 am.

MSGT Keith is in Port St. Lucie.
http://myarmylifeandtimes.blogspot.com/

Last I heard, his power went out at around 9:30am today. I'm sure he'll post about it when they get power back. Recent estimates have about 3/4's of ALL of FPL's clients w/o power- the worst outage in Florida history. *grump*

Oh, I see, Harvey get's on the "map", but not me?
I visit, I break bread with you, I entertain the kids (even allowing a photo), I even blogged from Florida! Geeze...
(just kidding - I don't want the traffic.)
:)